The dashes are a double minus sign. They are used to convert a string into a
number, by forcing Excel to do arithmetic on it. You could just as easily add 0,
or multiply by 1, with the same result, but the standard has evolved to the
double minuses.

--
Regards,
Fred


"WLMPilot" wrote in message
...
I spotted this in a questions and want to know what the dashes are for. I
have also seen dashes used in the SUMPRODUCT function. This is copied &
pasted to show entire question/answer

QUESTION:
=IF(AND(A4="4/12/2006",A4<="9/12/2006"),"49")

This should show next week as 'Week 49' but doesn't. I want to add another
three IF to this string so that I can get the month sorted out in Week order?

ANSWER:
Try it as:
=IF(AND(A4=--"4/12/2006",A4<=--"9/12/2006"),49)